A few weeks ago, I attended DevConnections Conference and was particularly interested in learning about SQL Server.  Last August Microsoft launched SQL Server 2008 and, to no surprise, SQL Server 2008 was the main focus of many of the sessions. These sessions covered a wide range of topics including Business Intelligence, performance tuning and database maintenance.

Many of the improvements made to SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition will not affect the application (for example, Geonetric’s VitalSite product) using SQL Server 2008. This allows you to make improvements to the database without having to revisit application code to make sure the new improvements work. In many cases you simply need to turn on the feature in order to utilize it. These improvements enhance security, performance and maintainability, which I believe leads to cost savings.

One of the speakers, Kimberly Tripp, mentioned the goal of the SQL Server sessions was to be informative, yet concise so when attendees go back to work, they can immediately apply what they learned. I arrived home at 12:30 p.m. and by 4:30 p.m., I applied a performance tuning trick I learned. I would certainly say they achieved their goal.

Overall, it was a great conference and the speakers did a fantastic job. I look forward to being able to apply more things I’ve learned in the months and years to come.